American Experience

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Explore the story of The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln further with more information on the important figures within Lincoln’s inner circle, the co-conspirators to the assassination, an interview with the filmmaker and a list of other related films from AMERICAN EXPERIENCE.

Lincoln’s Deathbed
Images of Abraham Lincoln as he lay dying filled the popular press in the days following the assassination. The sudden and violent attack on the president came on Good Friday, the most somber day of the Christian calendar. Many drew the inevitable parallel between a president who died to save the Union, just as Christ died to save men’s souls. The assassination transformed Lincoln, who had not been universally beloved, into a martyr.

Though it is doubtful that 16 people could have fit into the small room at one time, this engraving shows family, allies, and important members of Lincoln’s administration attending the president. Learn who is who.

• U.S. Postmaster General
• Secretary of the Interior
• Secretary of the Navy
• Secretary of the Treasury
• Quartermaster General of the Army
• Commander of the Department of Washington
• U.S. Army Chief of Staff
• U.S. Chief Justice
• U.S. Army Surgeon General
• President Lincoln’s wife, the First Lady
• Secretary to the President
• President Lincoln’s son
• Surgeon
• Massachusetts Senator
• U.S. Secretary of War
• U.S. Attorney General

The Co-Conspirators
Photos and information about each person involved in the assassination plot.

• John Wilkes Booth – member of a famous acting family
• David Herold – impressionable and dull-witted
• George Azterodt – carriage painter and boatman
• Lewis Powell – former Confederate prisoner of war
• Mary Surratt – first woman executed by the U.S.
• Michael O’Laughlen – ex-Confederate soldier
• Samuel Arnold – long-time friend of Booth
• Samuel Mudd – doctor who treated the fugitive Booth
• Edmund Spangler – stangehand and carpenter at Ford’s Theater
• John Suratt – Booth’s most valuable conspirator

Behind the Scenes
Read an interview with filmmaker Barak Goodman about creating The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln and filming the recreations.

Related Films from AMERICAN EXPERIENCE
Links to our related films.